Most dishwashers use detergents to clean objects such as cookware placed therein. Various formulations of detergents have been introduced that provide excellent cleaning in such machines. For example, detergents often use non-ionic surfactants, usually along with water softeners, bleaches, enzymes, anti-bacterial agents, fragrances, coloring agents, and various other ingredients.
Many dishwashers now have a thermal sanitizing feature. For example, various dishwashers available from General Electric Corp. meet NSF/ANSI Standard 184, which requires that a dishwasher achieve a 99.999% reduction in bacteria when operating in its sanitizing cycle. Typically, in such a sanitizing cycle, water is heated to a more elevated temperature than used in normal cleaning for a certain period of time. For example, the sanitizing rinse must accumulate at least 3600 HUE (heat unit equivalents) points above 143 F to be considered sanitized. HUE points are established as a function of temperatures of 143 F or above within the NSF standard. Calculations are based on HUE's gathered per 1-second intervals. The NSF protocol requires a minimum of 3600 HUE's shall be accumulated at each of the monitored plate and glass locations in the dishwasher. If the temperature at any thermocouple location drops below 143 F, the accumulation of HUE's begins again at zero once the temperature returns to 143 F. Further, sanitizing rinse temperatures shall meet or exceed 150 F.
Such dishwashers with sanitizing cycles are very effective at reducing bacterial presence on objects in the dishwasher. However, the extra sanitizing cycle's increased temperature, water handling requirements, etc., use additional energy. Further, total dishwasher cycle time may be increased if such a sanitizing cycle is included.
Accordingly, other designs for devices and related dishwashers that can sanitize objects, including those addressing one or more drawbacks of conventional sanitizing cycles and dishwashers, would be welcome.